We are just coming to the end of a 2500 mile trip around Germany.
I created all the routes which I then shared with my two friends, both running identical Garmin latest generation GPS devices. The routes ran perfectly from day one on my Nav V; they also ran very well on my two friends' devices, once we had sorted out their preference settings. There were some differences between us, not least when it came to recalculation.
When I created the routes I asked BaseCamp to take me from hotel to hotel, A to B. I then dragged the route around so that it took me down the roads I wanted to take, using shaping points each time, not waypoints. I therefore had a final route for each day A to B with just shaping points inbetween, which I then shared with my two friends. Their two devices are set up indenticaly with each other and have a mapset one generation newer than mine.
On import, their routes were 99% the same as mine. There were occasional differences, which occurred where there two devices (using one generation younger maps) chose slightly different routes between some of the shaping points. Nothing too bad, just some slight variations. I put this down to their maps being one generation different and / or a maybe a slight difference in the software between their my Nav V and their Garmin equivalents. What was more interesting perhaps is that my two friends' devices (set up identicaly) sometimes differed in their routes between them, which suggests to me that there is sometimes a slight variation in route calculation / displaying even between otherwise supposedly identical devices.
From time to time I, who was leading each days' rides, would go 'off route', to find a coffee stop say or because of roadworks and a deviation of perhaps a couple of miles. I leave my auto-recalculation set to prompted, invariably choosing 'No' when asked whether I would like the device to recalcalculste my routes, now that I am 'off route'. It's a personal thing, I just prefer to sort the deviation out for myself, rather than have the device do it.
My friends set their devices to promoted, too. They though said 'Yes' when asked if they would like the devices to recalculate. Here things became interesting:
1. Most often their two devices would recalculate no problem. I can only assume that this was because there was only one logical alternative road to take around the diversion.
2. Sometimes their two identical devices calculated different alternatives from each other. We know this as they are in radio contact with each other. This matches in with the slight difference we saw when they both imported otherwise identical routes. In other words, two seemingly identical devices worked slightly differently. Of course it's easy to guess - maybe even correctly - that the reason for the differences in the recalculated routes through the diversion was nothing more than they pushed ther 'Yes' to recalculation at different times, so their position on the map had changed, bringing with it other alternatives.
3. Most often the recalculated routes were perfect. Sometimes though they were absolutely bizarre, routing them sometimes miles away to rejoin the pre-set route, through what was otherwise just a simple (say five miles maximum) deviation from a set route due to roadworks. Had they followed the recalculated route, they would have - literally - been taken all around the houses.
Having in mind that there were no waypoints in any of the routes A to B, we can rule out the obvious possible conclusion that the devices were simply trying to reroute through a 'must do' point we had missed out. The second conclusion is that the two devices were recalculating bizarre alternatives in order to take in a shaping point. But that, even if it were the case, seems odd. I was though reminded that the Grey One once had a bizarre recalculation, going all over the place, too.
Just as an experiment, I tried a prompted recalculation once, in a big town with roads closed. The deviation was easy enough to follow in the town: Turn left, ride about half a mile, turn right, turn left and you'd be back on route, the road closure avoided. It's the way I went, following the temporary road signs, let's say not much over half a mile, a mile at tops, all on simple town streets. The recalculated route my Nav V offered up was, well the word 'bizarre' does not do it justice. It suggested I leave the town, ride miles, pick up a motorway, leave the motrway, re-enter the same town along the road I had come in on and, I assume, had I followed it encounter the same deviation and then would continue on repeating the same until I ran out of petrol, lost the will to live or hurled the expensive device into a river. Why it offered up this strange alternative have no idea, I can only assume that it was to take in a shaping point that was now behind me? Being a bright spark, I ignored the device's instructions to waste two hours of my life and rode to the correct part of my pre-set route, which the device then took up quite happily.
I think I am pretty good at plotting routes, whether in BaseCamp or Mapsource, working Garnin GPS devices and patient enough to learn (or at least try to understand) their occaisional foibles. I am though still no big fan of recalculation, not least as I can't always understand how the device makes the recalculation a reality. In other words, I cannot for the life of me understand why the device, instead of rerouting me very simply through the town (it really was very simple) offered up an alternative that was so crazy it defied even my fervent imagination. I will ask Garmin when I come back, sharing with them the route and the track of the simple track I took, instead of blindly following the devices bonkers alternative offering.
What I haven't mucked about with is the Nav V's 'Devation' button, which allows deviations of up to half a mile. I assume it's some sort of limited recalculation? If that is indeed what it does, then I guess it would have been perfect for the deviation in the town, perhaps?
I created all the routes which I then shared with my two friends, both running identical Garmin latest generation GPS devices. The routes ran perfectly from day one on my Nav V; they also ran very well on my two friends' devices, once we had sorted out their preference settings. There were some differences between us, not least when it came to recalculation.
When I created the routes I asked BaseCamp to take me from hotel to hotel, A to B. I then dragged the route around so that it took me down the roads I wanted to take, using shaping points each time, not waypoints. I therefore had a final route for each day A to B with just shaping points inbetween, which I then shared with my two friends. Their two devices are set up indenticaly with each other and have a mapset one generation newer than mine.
On import, their routes were 99% the same as mine. There were occasional differences, which occurred where there two devices (using one generation younger maps) chose slightly different routes between some of the shaping points. Nothing too bad, just some slight variations. I put this down to their maps being one generation different and / or a maybe a slight difference in the software between their my Nav V and their Garmin equivalents. What was more interesting perhaps is that my two friends' devices (set up identicaly) sometimes differed in their routes between them, which suggests to me that there is sometimes a slight variation in route calculation / displaying even between otherwise supposedly identical devices.
From time to time I, who was leading each days' rides, would go 'off route', to find a coffee stop say or because of roadworks and a deviation of perhaps a couple of miles. I leave my auto-recalculation set to prompted, invariably choosing 'No' when asked whether I would like the device to recalcalculste my routes, now that I am 'off route'. It's a personal thing, I just prefer to sort the deviation out for myself, rather than have the device do it.
My friends set their devices to promoted, too. They though said 'Yes' when asked if they would like the devices to recalculate. Here things became interesting:
1. Most often their two devices would recalculate no problem. I can only assume that this was because there was only one logical alternative road to take around the diversion.
2. Sometimes their two identical devices calculated different alternatives from each other. We know this as they are in radio contact with each other. This matches in with the slight difference we saw when they both imported otherwise identical routes. In other words, two seemingly identical devices worked slightly differently. Of course it's easy to guess - maybe even correctly - that the reason for the differences in the recalculated routes through the diversion was nothing more than they pushed ther 'Yes' to recalculation at different times, so their position on the map had changed, bringing with it other alternatives.
3. Most often the recalculated routes were perfect. Sometimes though they were absolutely bizarre, routing them sometimes miles away to rejoin the pre-set route, through what was otherwise just a simple (say five miles maximum) deviation from a set route due to roadworks. Had they followed the recalculated route, they would have - literally - been taken all around the houses.
Having in mind that there were no waypoints in any of the routes A to B, we can rule out the obvious possible conclusion that the devices were simply trying to reroute through a 'must do' point we had missed out. The second conclusion is that the two devices were recalculating bizarre alternatives in order to take in a shaping point. But that, even if it were the case, seems odd. I was though reminded that the Grey One once had a bizarre recalculation, going all over the place, too.
Just as an experiment, I tried a prompted recalculation once, in a big town with roads closed. The deviation was easy enough to follow in the town: Turn left, ride about half a mile, turn right, turn left and you'd be back on route, the road closure avoided. It's the way I went, following the temporary road signs, let's say not much over half a mile, a mile at tops, all on simple town streets. The recalculated route my Nav V offered up was, well the word 'bizarre' does not do it justice. It suggested I leave the town, ride miles, pick up a motorway, leave the motrway, re-enter the same town along the road I had come in on and, I assume, had I followed it encounter the same deviation and then would continue on repeating the same until I ran out of petrol, lost the will to live or hurled the expensive device into a river. Why it offered up this strange alternative have no idea, I can only assume that it was to take in a shaping point that was now behind me? Being a bright spark, I ignored the device's instructions to waste two hours of my life and rode to the correct part of my pre-set route, which the device then took up quite happily.
I think I am pretty good at plotting routes, whether in BaseCamp or Mapsource, working Garnin GPS devices and patient enough to learn (or at least try to understand) their occaisional foibles. I am though still no big fan of recalculation, not least as I can't always understand how the device makes the recalculation a reality. In other words, I cannot for the life of me understand why the device, instead of rerouting me very simply through the town (it really was very simple) offered up an alternative that was so crazy it defied even my fervent imagination. I will ask Garmin when I come back, sharing with them the route and the track of the simple track I took, instead of blindly following the devices bonkers alternative offering.
What I haven't mucked about with is the Nav V's 'Devation' button, which allows deviations of up to half a mile. I assume it's some sort of limited recalculation? If that is indeed what it does, then I guess it would have been perfect for the deviation in the town, perhaps?